They are dressed in blue and white, like the Toronto Maple Leafs, but after Monday they had one less similarity with the NHL team - a win.
Blue Steel secured their first win of the season Monday at the Canada Games Centre, defeating the Heat 6-3 in the Whitehorse women’s hockey league.
Making the biggest impression on the score was Steel’s Julia Gemsiaeger with two goals and two assists.
“I think we played much better together and had good passes,” said Gemsiaeger. “And we were really motivated - we wanted to win.”
Gemsiaeger is actually in town visiting family and friends. She is originally from Bavaria, Germany where she played 17 years in the highest level women’s league.
“It’s so much fun,” she said. “I really like my team.
“It’s pretty cool they could make a women’s league in Whitehorse. My city (in Germany) has like 42,000
people, but we only have five girls (in hockey). Four teams out of Whitehorse, that’s good.”
Gemsiaeger opened the scoring for her team. After a 2-on-0 rush at the other end of the ice, Gemsiaeger came into the Heat’s zone, letting a 20-foot wrist shot off from in front and catching the inside of the left post. Blue Steel then went up 2-0 on a goal by Jocelyn Barrett, her first of two.
“They’re looking up - that’s our first win,” said Barrett. “We’re finally coming together as a team.”
Also scoring for Blue Steel were Pamela Morrissey and Angela Gale.
“We weren’t covering defensively very well,” said Heat captain Janice Millington. “There were many times the puck was too available in front of the net and we weren’t as good as usual at clearing it out. Our forwards weren’t coming back deep enough in the backcheck and we weren’t on top of Julia (Gemsiaeger) enough. But our forwards did good at stepping it up later in the game.
“This game really wasn’t our best effort or reflective of the way the team has been playing.”
Scoring the Heat’s first two goals was Tanya Ordish with the first coming at the end of the opening period on a breakaway.
“She’s an excellent team player,” said Millington of Ordish. “She’s really good at helping people play the puck, positioning, and she’s really generous with information on the bench. She’s really encouraging so I love playing with her.”
Heat’s Josie Carbonneau scored her team’s final goal with less than a minute to play, assisted by Ordish and Jen Olsen.
The Heat won the teams’ first encounter 4-1 on October 5.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com